Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Slowing Down and Catching Up

Big enormous sappy thanks to everyone who wrote to me or left a comment today wishing me well. You guys made all the hard work and late nights worthwhile. On the record, I don't have any immediate professional plans, which I know sounds crazy to a lot of people with steady gainful employment (and more so to those without it). But there you go. Conveniently, my girlfriend and parents are all visiting next week, and after that, I'm gonna be ready for a little break. Sometimes you just really and truly need it. The ruthless San Francisco economy will understand, right?

Games-wise, I do plan to start writing freelance for a number of outlets in the fairly near future, so you can look out for that if you're interested. There will be links to specific articles when the time rolls around. I'll also offer thoughts here on whatever I'm currently playing, and I'm really excited to finally plow through a daunting backlog of important games that eluded me the last couple of years. (Started early by plowing through Half-Life 2: Ep2 last weekend, quick verdict: exemplary. Valve is more on its game than ever.)

Then on the "crazy abrupt change of life direction" tip... Since around this time last year, I've been toying with the idea of ditching this stupid landmass and heading down to Hawaii, where my girlfriend currently lives, to get into the booming business of beach-based shaved ice stands. It'd only be a year, tops. Do you know how much spam one man could eat in a year? Do you want to find out?

My pledge to you: if enough of you make a compelling argument in the comments (or alternatively, send me $1 each), I'm gone. Continents are bullshit, anyway.

Well, that would be at least a couple of months away. In the short-term: Anyone out there playing Condemned 2? Would a person need to play through the first game to appreciate it?

note: I've enabled anonymous comments per request; you won't need a Blogger account to post. Like Rufus said, be excellent to each other.

Heh, it would be a shame to watch you go, because we've already lost a lot of good faces to the video world of video games, but, as long as you're still doing freelancing work, I guess we'll just have to settle for it, eh? We'll miss you at GameSpot Brad. Best of luck.

You don't have to play the original Condemned to enjoy the game but you won't get any of the "in" comments. The melee combat has been greatly improved. I recommend it highly if you're into the horror/paranormal kind of thing. And who isn't?

Yeah dude, seriously, go work for Jeff and the boys at Giant Bomb! You know you want to, you know they need you, you know that they know that you need to, and you know that they know that they want you too! It's win-win and a no-brainer!

f*ck Hawaii, move to Canada! we could use some good talent up here. or head over to giantbomb.com up the road. either way, you should be up in the spotlight as you were on GS. would be a waste to see you disappear into oblivion. see you at E3!

Brad, Man, I remember you on one episode of On The Spot, with that game with the girls in bikini's cutting up zombies with swords, and for that single moment alone, you'll always be completely awesome. For that moment, you introduced me to The Oneechanbara. You sir, are a legend.

So sad to see ya leaving, I kept on telling myself at least Brad is still at GS, but no longer. There's still Brian, Ryan, Tor and some of the others I still tune in for but you'll be missed. Anyway I hope for the best in your future endeavors and hope to see in the videogame scene soon.

Hi Brad!Happy to hear your doing something for yourself man... I used to love watching you over at Gamespot before all of the "ugliness" and I thought you had a great perspective on games. It's sad to see you leave, and I hope you consider doing some freelance work... Also I'm sure there's a job over at Giant Bomb if you wanted it... With that said, I actually had a friend leave a lucrative job to move to Hawaii, taking a severe cut in income, and he said it was the best thing for him. He had friends there and decided to take a completely different career path and the next time I saw him I could tell the experience had been nothing but good for him. I still hope to hear from people like you about games though, and hopefully you might be able to freelance while in Hawaii or something. Either way I wish you good luck in this change in life and hope you are happy with what ever you do. Just know you will be missed if you go however...

Hey Brad, glad to see you're enjoying life after Gamespot. Man, you sure are slow about finishing your fps games dude. I remember one of your GS blogs, and how you didn't play Riddick and F.E.A.R. until a year after release. Well, since you're currently unemployed, I guess Crysis will be a long wait - unless you bought an uber PC before you left GS.

But anyways, I'm planning on getting Condemned 2 also. Looks fun just for beating the crud out of people. Why won't you accept friend requests on your Myspace?

You will be sorely missed man... You always reminded me of "that one dude" in college who was always there and was always welcome. I know your name is Brad Shoemaker and you can bet I won't forget it. I'm sorry shit went down so bad out there. I'll follow your travels here. I wish you the best.

Yea, I love the Half-Life series... If you get done with EP:2 and want to play a pretty well done mod... try "MINERVA: METASTASIS" Pretty good for just one guy creating it... I think just one guy. I dunno.

Dude, I am an a week late to the news. Gamespot will not be the same for quite sometime. Key components have left the fold, leaving the readers lonely and in a fetal position at our work desks. Good luck with everything! Girlfriend in Hawaii? It's a no brainer, go ahead and make that move. Hang Loose!